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Black Market
In SLASH'EM, the Black Market is a shop that covers most of its level and offers a wide variety of goods -- but charges many times the usual price for them. Specifically, it charges 50x as much for magical items, and 25x as much for normal items. One-eyed Sam is the shopkeeper, and is very difficult to kill, even as shopkeepers go. He wields the deadly sword Thiefbane and is equipped with most of an ascension kit (well-enchanted gray dragon scale mail, a shield of reflection and speed boots, as well as an amulet of life saving). Relieving Sam of his merchandise The methods for robbing from Sam are not too dissimilar from those for robbing normal shopkeepers, but come with additional complications. Credit cloning For lawful characters or those wishing to keep polyselfless conduct, one option to at least get anything you want from the Black Market, if not Sam's ascension kit itself, is to use credit cloning. If you wander around the Black Market long enough, eventually some sort of baby dragon will be generated. If you drop your gold, it will pick it up and follow you outside, where you can kill it and take back your gold. With a wand of undead turning, this process can be repeated many times, as baby dragons will always leave a corpse to revive. It is possible to build up hundreds of thousands of zorkmids in credit in the Black Market, more than enough to buy even a wand of wishing or a magic lamp. Additionally, after you have bought all that you need from the market, you can still use the shop's identification service for other items in your inventory (at 750 credit/identification, this can be repeated many times), which is quite useful for those characters who cannot cast identify. Indirect theft, i.e. pets Sam and his pals will not permit you to enter his level with a pet. It is still possible to acquire pets in the Black Market by feeding a domestic animal or waiting for an egg to hatch, but taming monsters through magic will not work here. Once you have a pet, you can clear out the shop in the normal way, but this is a rather tedious procedure, given the size of the market. The advantage of this and credit cloning is that neither angers One-eyed Sam. Direct theft As with normal shops, it is quicker to directly steal what you want, albeit more dangerous, since it will anger Sam and all of his assistants. One way to rob the shop is to collect everything you want, move next to Sam and zap him with a wand of teleportation, and run for it. You can also polymorph into a Xorn or use the Passwall spell to get directly to the exit. A somewhat safer method of direct theft is to read two scrolls of earth and build a divider down the middle of his shop, after moving everything you might want closer to the exit. Then zap Sam with a wand of teleport until he ends up on the far side of your boulder barrier. You will have to deal a few soldiers and Sam's helpers, but you don't have to kill Sam. You can generate infinite amounts of soldiers and their goodies this way by re-entering the shop and stealing another item, then leaving. Killing Sam A very easy way to kill Sam is to read a scroll of earth and use the boulders to surround him in front of the shop door. Then kill him with any ranged weapon. Firearms work well for this. Just make sure that you are of a sufficiently high level to actually be able to hit him, and enchant the launcher. If you like you can use a ring of conflict to help get rid of his pets, or you can just kill them. He is also not drain resistant and so can be killed with wands of draining or the drain life spell, although he's high level so it may take a few wands. He also lacks poison resistance, so a large stack of poisoned darts or arrows stands a good chance of instakilling him. Wishing for a blessed figurine of an Archon will get you a pet Archon, which Sam will almost certainly be able to kill. A pet Solar can likely finish him off, though it will take several rounds. (Note that the Archon, the conventional best pet of NetHack, is significantly outpowered by Planetars and Solars.) This wish is essentially lost beyond its value for robbing the market, however: Pets cannot follow you through the Black Market portal in either direction, effectively stranding them there. For a Doppelganger or a character with polymorph control, polymorphing into a giant shoggoth is a quite effective way to get rid of Sam. Thiefbane is only as effective as a normal longsword against them, and their attacks are more than powerful enough to kill him in a few hits. Be aware that shoggoths are blind though; telepathy is quite useful here. Also this is a somewhat minor concern, but it will leave Thiefbane thoroughly corroded. One Eyed Sam |size=Medium |nutr=400 |weight=1450 |reference=SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3813 }} One Eyed Sam is a special type of shopkeeper known as a "Black marketeer". In addition to starting off with ascension-gear equipment, being a black marketeer grants One Eyed Sam increased speed, increased damage, higher level, and inherent resistance to death magic and petrification. Map The Black Market is laid out as shown below; the shop encompasses all but the narrow corridor on the left: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |<|.......................................................................| |.|&......................................................................| |.|T......................................................................| |.|&......................................................................| |.|.......................................................................| |.|.......................................................................| |.|.......................................................................| |.|c......................................................................| |.|n......................................................................| |.|.......................................................................| |.|:......................................................................| |.|T......................................................................| |.|c......................................................................| |.+.......................................................................| |.|.......................................................................| |.|H......................................................................| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The assistants are the nine monsters shown here. They are initially asleep and peaceful; they will awaken and become hostile if you attack One-eyed Sam. Conversely, attacking them will make One-eyed Sam hostile as well. Using conflict to get rid of them, however, is safe. They are, from top to bottom: * A pit fiend named Hilvuuloth * A rock troll named William * A balrog named Njalnohaar * A cockatrice named Simon * A wood nymph named Daphne * A rhaumbusun named Izzy * A rock troll named Thomas * A cockatrice named Wilbur * A frost giant named Goliath Note that angering any named monster (or even previously named) in Sam's shop will anger him and his assistants. Therefore, one should be very careful in using the #call command in the Black Market. Engravings in the corridor admonish would-be customers: Pets are not allowed in the shop Thieves will be killed. Sorry about the mess. Remember, ask if you need help! Don't even think about stealing anything. See also The SLASH'EM Black Market FAQ Category: SLASH'EM